The present embodiments relate to medical diagnostic ultrasound systems. In particular, common application specific integrated circuits (ASICs) are provided.
Medical diagnostic ultrasound systems include ultrasound data processing paths. Ultrasound data processing paths include transmit beamformers, receive beamformers, detectors, scan converters, image processors and other stages. The ultrasound data path acquires ultrasound data and generates an image from the ultrasound data. Typically, an ultrasound data path used for any given type of system is independently designed. Low cost systems have different bandwidth, power consumption, features or other characteristics as compared to high cost systems.
Within a given system, a given ASIC may be used multiple times. For example, a receive beamforming ASIC is designed for operation with a limited number of channels, such as 8 or 16 channels. By providing a plurality of these ASICs in parallel, an ultrasound imaging system with a larger number of channels is provided. For low cost systems, the ASICs may be simple. For high cost systems, different ASICs are used. For example, U.S. Pat. No. 5,675,554 provides ASICs capable of different bandwidths as a number of different simultaneous beams are formed. Cascaded summation is then provided to beamformer across the plurality of ASICs.
A same type of ASIC may be used in different products. For example, two different manufacturers use a same system for different products or brand names. Since the systems are the same, providing the same capabilities within the hardware, the same ASICs are used. When a new system is designed, new ASICs are developed. However, the design of new ASICs is expensive and time consuming.